He told me that his dream was to someday be able to sing from the stage of the "World-Famous Casino Theatre" (The theater, with its phenomenal acoustics, was the first theatre ever built to accommodate the new invention of "talking motion pictures"). Then he quickly added that this dream could probably never happen. I smiled at him and asked if he would like to sing from the stage with the curtain up or down! He looked completely dazed and said "REALLY!?!"
I said that it was going to take me a few minutes to get the theatre ready to close and he would have about ten minutes to sing (I hope that God doesn't mind, it really only took me about two minutes to take down the theatre, but I didn't want him to feel rushed).
His wife, who had not been listening to the conversation, was patiently waiting for her husband to leave the building with her. When he told her that he was going to sing from the stage, with the curtain down, she beamed like a star and quickly returned to the theatre and took her place in a back row center loge seat.
I brought the curtain down and then dimmed the lights so that the stage was properly lit and then I quickly left the theatre. Little did he know that I was hiding behind the aisle curtain so that I wouldn't miss his performance. He sang with one of the most beautiful Irish tenor voices I had ever heard. He sang three songs, all three broken up with a tear in his voice, while his wife was crying and smiling at the same time (I took a peek now and then).
When he was finished I acted as if I had finished my work, hadn't been paying any attention to him, and that it was now time to leave. If he had smiled any broader, I was afraid that his face was going to rip right down the middle! His wife gave him a big hug and kiss and they both thanked me profusely and left.
I stood there for a few moments, trying to take in what had just happened. I realized something special had occurred and I had been allowed to be part of it. That evening it occurred to me that sometimes we are not the "star", but merely a "bit player" in someone else’s life. Today most people want to be the "center of attention" and yet God often puts us in position where we are being "used" to help someone else "shine". As with the lady in the Casino Ballroom, it was not about me but about them and I had the honor to be the one to help make THEIR "dreams" come true.
Let me share something with you -- when you give to others, unselfishly, and put yourself in a "supporting" rather than "starring" role, it is one of the greatest feelings that you will ever know! To know that I was able to make two people feel as special as they did those two separate nights, made me feel special! The old saying, "It is better to give than to receive" is so very true.
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